1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in movable baffle structures of domestic appliances.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Movable vanes are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,084,531 as applied to automatic clothes dryers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,402,576 also shows baffles which are adjustable axially along the perimeter of the drum but not radially.
Other prior art automatic clothes dryers employ baffles of fixed height to keep clothes within the drum tumbling and loosely exposed to the flow of warm drying air passing through the drum. Optimally, all parts of every garment should be repeatedly exposed to the drying environment of the drum equally so that all items of clothing will be dried at the same rate and become dry at about the same time. But since drying or tumbling characteristics of a load depend on drum size, the size of the load, its heaviness or lightness, the texture of the clothes, and baffle configuration, in a given dryer a small or light load will have tumbling characteristics different from those of a larger or heavier load. The prior art, however, does not disclose effective means for adjusting baffle height or configuration to compensate for such differences in load characteristics.